Local Lore
Instead of City Lore, can you expand it to be (Named area) lore which covers not just cities but also areas of countryside or wilderness so that people get a bonus in that area for its people, for navigation for hunting and for finding things of use. For example, you could have Local Lore - Moonstone Hills or Local Lore - Flatlands or Local Lore - Fire Island. This is different from terrain lore as the local lore might cover several terrains but it would only be appropriate for that area. Fire Island has a jungle, swamp and mountain, so Local Lore - Fire Island would work for all of them, but it would not work in the Icefinger Mountains or Scorpion Swamp.

No Swashbuckler talent
This is redundant now. It can be replaced with the Light Footed talent. EDIT: I just noticed bottg mentioned this in this post: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2230

Armour for unarmoured people
Unarmoured people get to reduce damage by 1 on an armour roll of 7+. This has no effect most of the time, but if they have a bonus to armour rolls (such as from the Light Footed talent), it gives them a chance of reducing damage even without armour. This is effectively like having a Dodge skill of 0.

Special skill points
Special skills can only go as high as half maximum skill, round down. I know this has been done before, but it's so imortant, I thought I might repeat it. Mentioned in this post: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2230

Languages
Instead of having points for languages and needing 4 points to be fluent, maybe the languages skill can be more of a “decipher” skill where the hero can decipher written and spoken languages that they don’t know. Learning a language to a fluency level could cost 100xp (which is 10 points less than getting 4 points in a skill). The Natural Linguist talent could give a +2 bonus to language rolls and also allow the hero to learn languages for only 50xp.

Silver-Tongued
In Stellar Adventures the Silver-Tongued talent gives a +2 bonus to four skills. In AFF2 it gives a +3 bonus. I would prefer a +2 bonus as a +3 bonus for four skills is a bit strong, making the hero a bit of a social game breaker.

Damage for masterwork weapons and damage from enchanted weapons
In the original rulebook, a sword of sharpness gives a bonus to damage rolls. However, in the Sorcery! book (and somewhere else but I can't remember where), sharpening a sword or getting a superior weapon gives a +1 to damage rolls. Also, SkinnyOrc sent me this as a message (but I don't know if it is public) that maybe superior weapons should get a +1 to damage rolls and enchanted weapons should get a +1 to actual damage. Inferior or damaged weapons could have a -1 to damage rolls.

Languages
Instead of having points for languages and needing 4 points to be fluent, maybe the languages skill can be more of a “decipher” skill where the hero can decipher written and spoken languages that they don’t know. Learning a language to a fluency level could cost 100xp (which is 10 points less than getting 4 points in a skill). The Natural Linguist talent could give a +2 bonus to language rolls and also allow the hero to learn languages for only 50xp.

Thank-you for putting together all the ideas in this thread. I like almost all of them, but I personally feel that being able to learn a language to different levels of fluency is both useful and potentially interesting from a roleplaying perspective. It's also realistic, although that isn't important in an abstract fantasy RPG like AFF2e.

It even makes sense to me that some people could have more than 4 points in a language skill: professional poets, authors and orators (or speechwriters), for example.

Of course, the problem is that if skills can't exceed half SKILL or MAGIC, then only Elf Wizards with a MAGIC score of 8 would be legal starting characters. Possible solutions include making all languages exceptions to this rule, making all racial skills exceptions or making only the native language an exception. Or the native language could be represented by an extra Talent that everyone gets. It's worth pointing out that an Elf Hero with only one point of MAGIC is also technically illegal, due to the compulsory point of Magic-Minor, so perhaps this needs more thought.

There are a couple of other ideas I've had, although neither affects gameplay to a great extent and are more for flavour than to fix an issue with the game:

I think that having a separate Literacy skill (for reading and writing) might be useful in some circumstances. The Marsh Goblins in Sorcery3 The Seven Serpents are illiterate, for example. Of course, heroes would all get at least one point in this for free. However, I understand that most Directors might consider it not to be worth the extra book-keeping to include another skill that nearly everyone has and will hardly ever come into use. An alternative might be to have a negative Illiteracy Talent given to anyone who can't read and write.

Whilst I understand the need for a Common language for gameplay purposes, I don't like the fact that AFF2e treats it as a human hero's native language, whereas Elves and Dwarves have their own languages. In the books, different human languages are mentioned (Allansian is apparently very similar to Arantian; some people from Mauristatia speak Crolian, etc.) but everyone still seems to make themselves understood wherever they are. In game terms, this would be like having a native language (Dwarfish, Kallamehri, Gallantarian or whatever) and also a working knowledge of the Common tongue. Humans and other heroes would then be on a level playing field when it comes to free language skills.

I'd like to reiterate that I think most of the rules in this thread are very helpful and I'll be using them in my games.

Good points. How about fluency in a language is worth 2 points? After all, if 4 points is mastery which gives me the impression of Shakespeare or Dr Samuel Johnson, you don't need to know every word in a language to get by. 1 point is partial fluency, which might cause some problems and then having 3 or 4 points might give bonuses when making a speech, being persuasive or interpreting a particularly specialist tome.

Good points. How about fluency in a language is worth 2 points? After all, if 4 points is mastery which gives me the impression of Shakespeare or Dr Samuel Johnson, you don't need to know every word in a language to get by. 1 point is partial fluency, which might cause some problems and then having 3 or 4 points might give bonuses when making a speech, being persuasive or interpreting a particularly specialist tome.

I have to say that I like the idea of 4 being perfect fluency, with 5/6 showing great poetical or oritory abilities. When you learn a language there is a long journey between being able to make simple sentences and actually being fluent and comfortable in all situations, even when having to improvise. I remember tripping over myself on numerous occasions when I started using my second and third language at work. I could communicate but would make mistakes in understanding or saying things which could lead to amusement or even in some cases anger from the person I was communicating with.

Another thing which should be kept in mind with being less than completely fluent is how exhausting speaking another language can be. For example you are at level 3, really good. In fact you can function at native fluency on certain subjects for a period of time but you will get tired and after a while start to struggle, mistakes will creep in, you get a headache, you get more frustrated and you go down hill. By the end of the evening you are at level 2 at best level 1 at worst.

Even people who can communicate their ideas fluently can struggle on particular things. My wife's family found it very amusing (and at times confusing) that I struggled with the different prenunciations of L'amour and la mort. With the result that I have to take special care. You can also excel in certain aspects of the language, one relative said "Your grammar is very good but your accent is terrible at times, while your Belgian friend has an excellent accent but horrible grammar." Even between two languages you can struggle with different aspects of them.

So a long reply in defence of level 4 for language fluency (the one skill exempt from from the half of skill limitation in my mind)! Even in an abstract RPG like AFF there is a whole world of possibilities to be explored in how people communicate.

I'd just make languages Special Skills an exception to the rule of having Special Skills max at half SKILL or half MAGIC.
Thinking about the middle age (we are in a kind of medieval fantasy world, after all... and Charlemagne, in the real world, for example, couldn't really read...) I think that having a Literacy Special Skill that allows you to read and write makes sense, although under the practical point of view it could be an issue (think about the various bits of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain where you have written stuff... if take it away, you lose quite a bit of the adventure...) maybe we can assume that having Magic or Priestly Special Skill you automatically learn also to read and write.

He's a real Nowhere man, sitting in his Nowhere land, making all his Nowhere plans for Nobody.

Yeah it's never made sense to me you can read and write with only Language 2 and yet native speaker is Language 3. So all native speakers can read and write, which means Titan has a slightly higher literacy rate than the modern first world where only most can. Maybe instead Language 3 is fluent speaking and 4 is basic reading and writing. But a separate Literacy skill might be even better.

Nuvole! wrote:an exception to the rule of having Special Skills max at half SKILL or half MAGIC.

I just don't think that rule change works, it causes too many flow on effects. You should be able to be good at a special skill without a high SKILL. It's just to stop Weapon special skills getting too high too fast, so limit it to those or achieve the result in a completely different way.

My House rule is : max of 6 in skill and magic. It is possible to have twelve like in the original fighting fantasy books only when 6 points of special skills are purchased. I removed the outnumbering rules in my version of the game. It cost 250x the next level of special skill, 30x the next level of stamina. Its 20 for magic and skill. Yeah!!! It took times to progress, maybe some years before reaching 6 in one or two special skills. And finally, all monsters may have more skill and stamina. There is no skill or stamina assigned by default in my version of the bestiary. The director create is monsters for his campaign. But the guide line is low (1-7), average (7-10) and high (10-16) for skill and low (1-10), average (10-25) and high (25-50) for stamina. A man-orc can have these value, for exemple; skill: low / average, and stamina: low / average. That mean the man-orc may have 9 in skill and 12 in stamina to be a good opposition if the players are experienced. In the Legend of zagor, for exemple, a mummy have 12 in skill and 22 in stamina. Why a cave giant shouldnt have more than 9 in skill and 10 in stamina ? That cave giant is a wimp when facing veterans, even if he deal double damage and he have many attacks. Why that nonsense ? Its because the game books are made to play single and the monsters are not very well balanced, at the origins. Out of the pit is not adapted very well, consequently.

Languages
Instead of having points for languages and needing 4 points to be fluent, maybe the languages skill can be more of a “decipher” skill where the hero can decipher written and spoken languages that they don’t know.

One doesn't "decipher" or "decrypt" an unknown language.

If a PC knows well a related language, they may be able to read/understand some of the subject language, but not all. E.g. someone who knows one Romance language can piece together a certain percentage of lexicon and perhaps grammatical data to understand things.

For example, if, in your campaign Orcish is significantly related to Goblinese, and you have a very firm grasp of Goblinese (=skill rating 4), then you would be able to get a skill lvl of 1 (or 2 at most) for orcish. Kinda like the d20 System's "synergy bonus", if you will.

Language comprehension is far more complicated than a binary OMNISCIENCE or IGNORANCE. As a professional Linguist, I do not want a hobby like RPGs to get cluttered with such granularity, so, as a rule, I omit all these issues and just play.

If your PC is trying to comprehend a written text or ongoing conversation you can use percentages:

The percentage ranges can be pushed up or down, depending on the nature of the text/utterance, other situational modifiers ("The inscription on the tomb-wall is much faded and pealed-off in places", or "You can't quite make out everything the orcs are muttering due to their clanging on the metalwork with hammers on a big anvil" or "The two pickpockets are whispering to each other in a noisy bazaar" or "The wind is howling and thunder is rumbling in the distance and their discussion is hard to make out", or "Sir Belvedere Boneyshanks is mumbling through his bevor again", etc.)